NASA's next mission in question

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - Space shuttle Discovery and its astronauts are back from the international space station after accomplishing everything they set out to do.

All the headaches are now back on Earth.

Hanging over the successful supply mission is uncertainty about both the status of the next shuttle flight and scheduled follow-up trips to the new space station.

Those fears were momentarily was set aside as Discovery emerged like a ghost ship from the predawn Sunday sky and touched down on Kennedy Space Center's floodlighted runway.

It was only the 11th time that a space shuttle landed in darkness.

``Welcome home, Discovery, from the first docking mission to the international space station,'' radioed Mission Control.

The seven astronauts skipped the traditional shuttle walkaround and picture taking, and instead asked to be driven straight to crew quarters. They left managers waiting on the landing strip, fueling speculation that one or more of the crew might be nauseous, as sometimes happens to returning astronauts.

NASA insisted the astronauts were fine and merely eager to be reunited with their families.

During their 10 days in orbit, the astronauts unloaded 2 tons of supplies at the space station for future inhabitants, replaced bad electronic boxes and installed mufflers over noisy fans.

On their way home, they dropped off a glittering, mirrored satellite called Starshine that schoolchildren will track until it falls from orbit at the beginning of next year.

Astronauts aren't due back at the space station until December, when they're supposed to haul up more supplies aboard Atlantis. But that mission cannot take place - and neither can any other missions to the 6-month-old space station - until the Russians launch a crucial service module that will double as crew quarters.

The component is scheduled to fly in November, 1 years behind schedule, provided all the testing between now and then goes well. The Russian Space Agency's money problems and delays have long bothered NASA.

``I always hope for the best, plan for the worst,'' NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin said following Discovery's return.

NASA's more immediate concern involves Columbia and the $1.5 billion observatory Chandra, also running a year late because of a multitude of problems.

The upper-stage motor on Chandra is similar to one that malfunctioned aboard a military satellite in April, leaving the spacecraft in a uselessly low orbit. An Air Force investigation into the failure continues.

For now, NASA is proceeding toward a July 22 launch of Columbia, the only shuttle big enough to hold the 45-foot telescope. Goldin stressed, however, that he won't give the final go-ahead until ``the NASA team walks into my office and says they understand exactly what went wrong, they understand how it was fixed.''

NASA has until mid-August to send Columbia on the telescope-delivery mission without impacting other missions, said shuttle program manager Ron Dittemore.

The problem is that NASA's oldest shuttle is due for its regularly scheduled tune-up and, unless it flies soon, it will have to undergo eight to nine months of maintenance before launching Chandra. That would bump the mission - the first to be commanded by a woman - into late 2000.

``If it takes a year, it will take a year,'' Goldin said. ``Time is not an issue.''